How the GOP Wave Could Boost Chances for a Constitutional Convention of the States

The 2014 Republican tide might lift the movement for a convention of states to amend the Constitution, advocates said. Republicans now control 69 state legislative chambers across the country, surpassing the party’s record of state Houses and Senates the GOP controlled in 1920, picking up of nine chambers this year. The party controls both the House and Senate in 30 states. Tennessee and Louisiana passed resolutions calling for a Convention of the States in the 2014 legislative sessions to approve a federal balanced budget amendment, bringing the tally to 24 states, according to the State Government Leadership Foundation, a conservative group advocating for a convention. Some of those resolutions stretch back to the 1980s. That’s within 10 of the magic 34 states needed to reach the two-thirds of state legislatures to call a state convention under Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution. If a convention approves an amendment, three-fourths of the states – 38 – must vote to ratify it. This option has never been used for amending the Constitution.

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